Rollright Stones Stone Circle, Oxfordshire

Rollright (northern half)

Off the A34T 500m west along a B road at Great Rollright
The Rollright Stones is a well-preserved stone circle,
originally in private ownership, but since purchased by the Friends Of The Rollright
Stones.
The stones are limestone, so they have been weathered
into fantastic gnarled shapes by the passage of Time. As well as
the stone circle itself, there is an outlier, The King Stone, which is
also a finely weathered limestone monolith, though sadly
surrounded by some singularly ugly iron railings...

A few hundred metres east of the circle is the Whispering
Knights dolmen, another good collection of limestone monoliths.

Legend

The name comes from a local legend (16)
- the large outlier is the King turned to stone, the Whispering
Knights his men. They were calcified, so rumour has it, by a local
witch when travelling over her land.

The Witch cackled &quot;Go forward&quot;
Seven long strides shalt thou take
If Long Compton thou canst see
King of England thou shalt be

[Long Compton is a local village which would normally be seen
from the King Stone, were it not for a natural mound blocking the
view]

The king went forward expecting triumph, but the witch had the
last laugh -

&quot;As Long Compton thou canst not see
King of England thou shalt not be
Rise up stick, and stand still, stone,
for King of England thou shalt be none.
Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be
and I myself an eldern tree

Rollright is one of the closest megalithic sites to London and
is reasonably easily reached - it can be surprisingly popular at
times. Because of its proximity to London, it was the chosen site
for an unorthodox project called The Dragon Project (15)
to seek to measure mechanically any anomalous physical effects
associated with megalithic sites.